Qu’est-ce que c’est?

What is this?

Russet potatoes freshly harvested?

But no.

These lovelies don’t look so pretty, but they are indeed delicious.

Can you tell I have a new Nikon D700 camera and a honking new lens too?  I’m still trying to figure out how this thing works…

Well, so far I have been able to make little itty bitty chocolate cocoa beans look like russet potatoes.  That’s neat.

These don’t look gorgeous but they taste gorgeous.  The cocoa beans are ethically sourced and locally roasted by the husband and wife team Dominique and Cindy Duby, of Wild Sweets.

While I was at Whole Foods, lingering at the chocolate section, I noticed these artisanal chocolates.  The concept is a play on chocolate covered nuts.  The roasted cocoa bean replaces the nut and it’s covered with 70% dark chocolate infused with various flavourings and tossed in cocoa powder. 

The box I bought was under $6Cdn for the little 60g box.  There didn’t seem to be as many cocoa beans as I would have hoped for, for that amount of money, but mind you these are meant to be savoured slowly.  I just had one and it was all at once crunchy and chocolatey but not as bitter as eating a naked cocoa nib.  The dark chocolate coating helped temper the bitterness and added a tiny element of smoothness.  I detected a tiny bit of the finely ground caramel.

I was not so daring to try the other flavours, but opted for the safe Turbinado Vanilla flavour for now.  The other flavour available was Cassonade Chipotle.  There was also a Cocoa Nib series which I guess of course, incorporates little nibs.  The flavours were Almond Black Pepper and Hazelnut Star Anise. 

Since I have been reading Mireille Guiliano’s, French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook, that I recently bought for my Kindle, I have been detoxing with her Miracle Breakfast Cream and Leek Soup.  Though I had an interrupted day by attending the PNE and eating those little cinnamon-sugar donuts, I didn’t overindulge.  I lost about 3 pounds in 3 days and have now become addicted to the Miracle Breakfast Cream.  I have been eating the MBC for about a week now and I’m making my own organic yogurt at home.

The Leek Soup wasn’t as tasty on its own so I doctored it by adding chicken broth to it.  The Leeks themselves I had with olive oil and lemon juice. They were so good I think I could live on this forever.  I will be incorporating the MBC in my breakfast routine from now on.  I can’t believe how much better I feel.  I think it’s the MBC.   I actually find myself thinking about the MBC during the day and I look forward to eating it from the special little bowls I set aside for serving my MBC.  The recipe I like uses organic plain yogurt, organic lemon juice, finely ground organic plain shredded wheat cereal and walnuts, flaxseed oil and honey.  I chose to sweeten it with Manuka honey.  It’s expensive but I have had really good health eating it; especially when I have a cold.  I have 3 different bottles of Manuka honey at home for different purposes.  The bottle with the highest Manuka Factor ( UMF 20+) I use for colds—I ordered these from New Zealand's Comvita online, and the stuff I get at Whole Foods is just UMF16+ which I use to prevent colds.  The other one is simply labelled Manuka honey and doesn’t indicate any number for the Manuka Factor and that is the one I’m using for the MBC.  I have a sweet tooth (as you know) so I use about a teaspoon. 

These little chocolate covered “nuts” are so perfect for me right now.  I can control myself and not overindulge and they are so decadent!

VANILLA BEAN FLECKED MINI POUND CAKES

Pound cake can be a misnomer. 

I recall in a previous life as a newly married woman without children, I had a desire for my husband to bake for me.  He is no baker.  He has no experience baking.  However, in this day and age, there are no dragons to slay nor villains to be saved from and so I felt the need for him to meet some sort of a challenge that would push his comfort level. 

These were the days when we still bothered with a “date night”.  With kids now, there really doesn’t seem to be a point anymore!

Well, along with the new-wife trick questions like: “Do you like my hair cut short or long?” and “Would you marry again if I were to die before you?” and “Do I look fat in this?” early on in our marriage, my husband had to manoeuvre his way around a couple of other challenges in order to reaffirm his love to me.  One of these things was baking a cake.   I told him I thought it appropriate for him to bake me something because I always baked for him.  Heck, I did stuff  like washing the cars, installing carpet and grouting and re-siliconing all the bathrooms and kitchen.  Wasn’t it fair that he should try at least once? 

Since Stomach enjoyed pound cakes and chiffon cakes—about the only cakes he ever ate…I suggested he make a pound cake.  It was easier and didn’t necessarily require operation of heavy machinery (my KitchenAid!  don’t touch it!)

I left him with a suitable cookbook opened to the appropriate page and left him to his own devices as I kicked back and watched t.v. with a pile of cooking magazines on my lap.

How hard could baking a pound cake be after all?  Mine always turned out pretty good. 

After taking the golden cake out of the oven, I nodded and sniffed and thought it quite impressive.  We allowed the cake to cool and cut a few slices to try.  It looked good, it smelled good…it tasted pretty good fresh out of the oven! wow. 

Unfortunately this did not last.   The next day it wouldn’t cut easily. It was hard as a rock.   

Man was it heavy.  We dubbed it a "kilogram cake" because it was a tad heftier than a pound cake.  I don’t really know what he did.  He could have gone wrong anywhere: inaccurate measuring of ingredients, overbeating/underbeating or forgetting something?    I never asked him to bake again.

Rose Levy Beranbaum's book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes  has been speaking to me recently.  Though I have been thinking about fully frosted, multi-layered towering rich cakes primarily, I haven't mustered the caloric deficit to allow myself to bake one of the beauties.  Instead, I have been opting for frosting-less cakes that the family can share for snacks, breakfast and for eating out of hand.  And no, these weren’t like his.  These pound cakes were actually very good and in fact keep well and taste better the next day after wrapping in plastic wrap and storing in a sealed container.  I had even brushed both little cakes with a syrup to ensure moistness because I can’t stand a pound cake that is so dry that it makes you gag for a glass of water. 

Because this vanilla pound cake calls for TWO WHOLE PODS worth of vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract to boot, I think you can safely say there is a definite Vanilla flavour.  I found that the vanilla seeds, which are almost like small grains of pepper flecking the cake, added a bit of unexpected crunch.  The recipe is good and I’d probably make it again but it isn’t as moist as I would have liked it.  I think perhaps next time I would double the syrup recipe and add some bourbon to the syrup too.  I didn’t do the bourbon this time because I thought my kids wouldn’t like it.

If you were wondering, I have long gotten over trying to get anyone to prove anything to me.  Eventually early on, he along with his buddy, compared notes and came up with some sort of a cheat-sheet for newly married husbands of appropriate answers ("great haircut...you're so fortunate to carry off long AND short hair", "no, that doesn't make you look fat, but I really liked the red dress because it makes you looks sexy" etc.) for all those new-wife questions...the kind of answers that don't get you in the dog house!   The funny thing is that the "right" answers don't get you in the doghouse, but they're no fun either. Besides, that's what girlfriends are for. They tell you the truth and husbands are supposed to tell you that they love you no matter what.

Girlfriends are also great companions for chick flicks. I saw "Eat, Pray, Love" on opening day with my girlfriends and liked all the food porn.  Did anyone else like it? That spaghetti in Italy looked amazing.  I'm not surprised Roberts gained 10 pounds while filming!   I was primarily into the "Eat" part of the movie.  I have decided I want to visit Bali someday too.

In the meantime, baking and eating in Vancouver is about all I can do.
You'll find the recipe in Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

DISNEY FOODIE GOODIES

  
Apologies for such a long absence—but I have been enjoying my holidays in Disneyland! 

We had a blast! It was my first time and the first time for my daughters too.  We told Bebe that for her 7th birthday she wasn’t going to get a birthday party or cake made by mommy this year.  She was going to get 5 days in Disneyland! What a deal!  She didn’t complain at all.
Fortunately, Bebe surprised us with her resilience.  She vehemently retorted that she didn’t need a stroller at all and she walked everywhere and anywhere we went.  We were up early for the Magic Mornings (7am entry!) and stayed up really late to catch all the shows and fireworks at night.  Bib was short about 2 hours of sleep everyday but fortunately she napped a bit in the early afternoon before we headed out again at dinner and in the evening.  We stayed at the Grand Californian and Bebe received a birthday button/pin the day we checked in.  Reception told her to wear it everyday.  Boy was that a good thing!  Everywhere we went, people wished her a happy birthday.  She received freebies like a birthday beignet with candle and singing at the Cafe Orleans and she had a free brownie and candle at Ariel’s Grotto.  She was getting birthday cupcakes and happy bday songs left right and centre. 

Bib spotted this baby Eeyore at one of the Disney stores and had to have it.  I admit, he has a very fetching expression, doesn’t he?  He looks like he wants some cake, but is a tad sad he can’t have any ‘cause he’s on a diet. 

Knowing me, you  expect me to come home with some Disney Foodie Goodies, don’t you?  I must admit I was a little disappointed.  I looked high and low for the Mickey waffle iron but the Disney people told me I should try online.  They don’t carry it anywhere on the grounds anymore.    So I consoled myself with purchasing as many Mickey and Disney foodie things as I could fit in my luggage.  I bought the red silicone Mickey ice cube tray above, the cookie cutter, fried egg mold and red silicone pancake mold.

I also purchased a few bags of Mickey shaped pasta and some other Mickey shaped foods.  Those were eaten pretty much immediately so I don’t have pics for you of those.  Imagine goldfish crackers and pretzels in the shape of Mickey’s head.

We were missing Japanese food pretty badly at Disneyland.  There wasn’t any sushi to be had.  How sad.  They need to rectify that.  I was surprised they didn’t have any sushi there at all.  Instead, you could get pizza, chicken strips and mac ‘n cheese pretty much everywhere.  My kids aren’t really into those foods so Bebe was eating Caesar salad and roast chicken and more adult fare from our plates.   We had the forethought to bring along some instant cup noodles in our luggage for those lunches when you just wanted something salty soupy in your hotel room and grabbed fresh fruit cups and milk around the site. 

When we got home, we went to Japanese restaurants in Vancouver 2 days in a row because we were in sushi withdrawal.  Funny how you don’t realize how good it is when you can have pretty much any ethnic cuisine you want in Vancouver.  I was hankering for some Greek food too--roast lamb and Greek salad!  Stomach of course wanted dim sum.

Eeyore did finally get to plunge his muzzle into the Vanilla Bean chiffon cake I baked today.  He got crumbs all over but that’s okay.

VANILLA BEAN CHIFFON CAKE
(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Master Recipe for Chiffon Cake)

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cups plain cake flour (measure unsifted)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 7 large eggs, 2 left whole, 5 separated (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (I added the seeds of  a whole vanilla bean pod in there too)
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup water

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl (at least 4-quart size). Whisk in two whole eggs, five egg yolks (reserve whites), water, oil, vanilla pod seeds and extracts until batter is smooth.
2. Pour reserved egg whites into large bowl; beat at low speed with electric mixer until foamy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar, gradually increase speed to medium-high, then beat whites until very thick and stiff, just short of dry, 9 to 10 minutes with handheld mixer or 5 to 7 minutes in standing mixer. With large whisk, fold whites into batter, smearing any blobs of white that resist blending.
3. Pour batter into ungreased large tube pan ( 9 inch diameter, 16-cup capacity).
4. Bake cake on lower middle rack in oven until wire cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, 55-65 minutes. Immediately turn cake upside down to cool. If pan does not have prongs around rim for elevating cake, invert pan over bottle or funnel, inserted through tube. Let cake hang until completely cook, about 2 hours.
5. To unmold, turn pan upright. Run frosting spatula or thin knife around pan’s circumference between cake and pan wall, always pressing against the pan. Use cake tester to loosen cake from tube. For one-piece pan, bang it on counter several times, then invert over serving plate. For two-piece pan, grasp tube and lift cake out of pan. If glazing the cake, use a fork or a paring knife to gently scrap all the crust off the cake. Loosen cake from pan bottom with spatula or knife, then invert cake onto plate. (Can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature 2 days or refrigerated 4 days.)